


Background Noise

by seekingjets



Series: Bad Business [5]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Bad Business au, Family Issues, Found Family, Humanformers, Hurt, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, not beta read because I'm a coward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 02:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18240617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekingjets/pseuds/seekingjets
Summary: Certain events have lead the three to where they are now. Most of which involve Starscream and his terrible decision making.---aka: brief situations they had to suffer and survive together.





	Background Noise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lesbianbean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianbean/gifts).



> Lesbianbean requested Bad Business Au involving the trine....but didn't specify if they wanted it to be happy or not. So that's how this hell happened. 
> 
> Each scene takes places years apart - and you probably need to read the other stories to even slightly understand what's going on here.

 

 

They’re children when they first get Skywarp.

Thundercracker has always been around, a consistent shadow at Starscream’s heel. Taller. Older. Anxious that he’s going to overstep and get in trouble. TC usually takes the blame when Starscream breaks something, steals something, cries. He volunteers for it, thinking it will make the angry little boy feel better, but it never really does.

They’re children when they first meet Skywarp, smaller than Starscream (somehow). Flushed cheeks and wet eyes after saying goodbye to his remaining parent. He doesn’t want to live in this giant house with its dark corners and haunted owners. He already claims he can see ghosts trailing after him. Wraiths tired and frail in the space where his eyes can’t focus and Skywarp clings to Thundercracker’s arm like a life raft when they are introduced.

“They’ll be like your brothers.” Starscream’s mother explained one evening, brushing Starscream’s hair with a wide tooth comb and making sure not a single wild curl is out of place.

“They aren’t like me.” He answers, pouting at this idea he’s losing what’s his. Only a child and he’s angry about everything. Bitter about everything. The doctors with their ironed coats and new teeth whisper about him after they visit. They speak with soft voices and kind smiles but their eyes tell a different story. Starscream is always looking up at adults looking down at him. Now he has two more faces to disappoint. He hates it. He hates them.

Skywarp is small and sad and holds Thundercracker’s hand wherever they go. They play together, build forts together and don’t care about Starscream.

“No one will be like you darling, you’re perfect.” His mother smoothes sharp smelling lotion across his cheeks - tells him to go play while his father and she entertain the hoards of guests waiting for her arrival. Strangers always fill his home, clinking diamond glasses and pretending to give a single shit about Starscream’s existence. So he guesses his mother and father brought children his age to do a better job at pretending.

It’s less than a month of Skywarp living with them that Starscream breaks his arm.

It was an accident, he swears through panicked tears as his father carries the screaming boy to the car. Starscream is chasing after him, trying to spit out as much information as his young brain can manage. To make it anything BUT his fault. _Skywarp didn’t have to take the dare! The groundskeeper shouldn’t have left the back gate open! The balcony didn’t look that high!_ It’s the first time Starscream has seen his father in weeks and he’s pinned with a look that turns his belly cold. Red eyes that they share never looking so hard as he hands Skywarp off to waiting hands.

“Stop speaking. Get in the car.” His father’s voice is darker than anything Starscream could imagine. Flooding his mind with terror of his father, of his impending punishment and causing his throat to swell. He only moves because his father snaps, points to the car, and doesn’t look in the mood for games.

His father makes him watch when they reset Skywarp’s arm. He makes Starscream hold Skywarp’s hand when the boy fights the pain and and makes Starscream write down everything the nurses say. He’s shown how to check for proper circulation and how to read the digital thermometer. He’s explained what might upset Skywarp’s stomach on the pain medication they’ll be taking home and he’s informed he’ll have to pack a bag. That he’s being moved to sleep in Skywarp’s room until the smaller boy is cleared by the doctors.

It’s too much. He finally breaks.

Starscream throws a fit in the hospital lobby screaming he doesn’t want to! That he shouldn’t have to! His mother tries to calm him down but his father stops that with a hand on her sharp shoulder. Denying Starscream any further moment with her as he kneels and looks Starscream through the mess of hurt and tears. His father smells like oil and scorched oxygen, like the grease pits of the hangars he spends his time folded over engines rather than in his glossy office or at home. He’s busy, he’s always busy, but Starscream has never felt so far away from his father than this moment.

Starscream is told he looks like his mother. Shares her dark skin and her dark hair, but he has his father’s eyes and his father’s mind and apparently none of that matters as his father is looking at him like a stranger. Distant and sealed behind some anger a child like him simply can’t understand.

“This is the last time you’re allowed to cry over this, understood?”

“Polaris,” His mother snaps and it’s the first time Starscream has seen them look at one another like that. Tense. Angry. All his fault.

But his father is hardly deterred by the look on his wife’s face. This same man who would sit with Starscream for hours when he had the time. Teaching him to build his first model jet, laughing when they glued their hands together or spilled red paint across the marble floors. He looked unrecognizable as Starscream learns what shape disappointment takes in the face of one you love.

“You’re going to be better than this.”

Starscream does as told and he’s furious about it. No more tears, he’s not allowed to cry. Besides Skywarp is doing enough crying for the both of them, sniffling throughout the night while Starscream tries to ignore him. Head buried under his pillow - missing his large bed whereas he’s forced to sleep in this smaller room - surrounded by things that aren’t his given to this other boy from their caretaker.

Thundercracker likes Skywarp more than him! They’re always together, even now when Skywarp is too sick from the medication to get out of bed, Thundercracker brings him food. Brings him toys and reads him books while watching Starscream with uncertainty. Judging him when the timer goes off and Starscream has to check the cast. Check Skywarp’s fingertips. Check that he’s feeling ok. Check that he’s comfortable.

This is his home! Why should he have to---

“Do you want to play?” Skywarp asks when Thundercracker is called away, leaving them awkward and quiet in the room. His round eyes are bruised from lack of sleep and rubbed raw from tears he tries not to shed. His good hand has a robot toy, something sleek and new that Thundercracker brought. He has another, purple with wings and a broken arm left ignored in his lap. With only one hand to play he takes turns picking them up. Making funny voices and crashing them into one another. Giggling when he’s not crying, curls like Starscream’s but looser hanging around his face. Skywarp makes the broken arm talk in a different voice which scolds its host.

He’s a weird kid.

“What, with _you_?” He says it in a way that makes Skywarp flinch and look hurt but Starscream didn’t mean it! His belly burns with annoyance because Skywarp is looking at him in a sad way, a stupid way! He hates it!

“Why not?” Skywarp asks, voice meek but that hurt looks turns to match Starscream’s frown and they’re just jutting their round little chins at one another. Like two stupid little kittens about to start slapping - though Starscream is positive he’d win.

“Because last time you broke your stupid arm!”

“You pushed me!”

“No I didn’t!”

“Yes you did!” Skywarp is crying again, but so is Starscream and he doesn’t know why. He feels tired, he feels hurt and lonely and misses his father - but he doesn’t want to see that face again. His mother said to behave, told him to do as told and he is but it’s difficult when everyone likes Skywarp more than him!

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Then say you’re sorry!”

“I’m not sorry!” It wasn’t his fault!

“Well that’s dumbHey!” Skywarp is weighed down by the cast when Starscream yanks the broken toy from his lap. Already stepping away from the bed, ignoring the sharp whining behind him as his fingers work in a way his father taught him. Stretch the shoulder joint, align the pieces, make sure the band is in place.

“Give him back!” Skywarp cries and Starscream worries the caretaker is going to hear them and she’ll just assume Starscream is being mean again.

“Here!” He wants to throw the toy, wants very much to hit Skywarp in his stupid face but lets the figure drop on the blanket instead. Arm back in place, the easiest fix, even this stupid kid could have done it!

Skywarp collects his toy with an awkward hand and brings it to his chest protective and upset. Takes him a moment to realize what Starscream did, turning the toy over in examination. Tugging on the arm and finding it secure with a sound like a bubble of shock jumping from his throat.

“I fixed it!” Starscream yells, face burning because Skywarp isn’t doing anything about it! He’s just staring and looking dumb and maybe getting in more trouble with his father is worth it just to run out of the room and---

“You’re so cool.”

“Huh?” He blinks and Skywarp is smiling. Why? Why is he smiling?

“You fixed him! I thought he was going to be broken forever. TC tried to fix him but that got glue everywhere and we had to clean it up and it messed up the carpet but we hid that ok and TC was scared he was going to get in trouble but that was ok because--”

Skywarp babbles on as easily as he cries. Just keeps going, unhindered by embarrassment or Starscream’s startled stare. Cheeks still wet with young tears, frustration melding away into confusion before eventually Starscream is left just exhausted.

“Can I play?” He interupts Skywarp’s story that’s become about monsters and an evil cook, not sure how they got there but seemed fine to move on.

“Yea?” Skywarp smiles wider and Starscream didn’t know faces could do that. “You want to be him?” He freely offers the toy just fixed, the winged robot Skywarp takes everywhere like it’s his only possession in the world. Starscream realizes he doesn’t care about anything as much as Skywarp cares about this toy.

“Aren’t you scared I’ll break him?” He asks.

“Well, you can just fix him?” Skywarp answers and remains just as weird as he was moments ago.

But maybe that was ok.

 ...

When Skywarp gets his cast off Starscream is there, sitting on the exam table holding Skywarp’s hand. Letting the other boy squeeze as much as he wants while asking a million questions about the tools the doctor is using. He tells Skywarp he thinks he can make a tool like that, then they can cut tunnels through the house - which makes Skywarp laugh instead of wince. They’re planning a great escape from the manor by the time the doctor is finished and they’re both given stickers. Starscream lets Skywarp have his and tries to steal a stethoscope from the room before they leave.

He waits later while their caretaker sits with Skywarp in a shut room back home, the other boy excited to talk with his mother over the computer. He only caught a brief glance at the woman. Dark like Skywarp with the same smile. Her uniform pressed and silver wings pinned on her chest while the noise past the pale room roars with familiar engine sounds. Skywarp’s mother flies the planes Starscream’s father builds and he thinks that’s pretty cool. He makes a promise to Skywarp to make planes Skywarp can fly when they’re older.

Years later when they’re fifteen, Skywarp is handed a folded flag and what remains of his mother in a lacquer box.

Starscream adjusts his promise to make planes that won’t break.

 

* * *

 

“Are you ok?!” TC and Skywarp are out of breath by the time they meet Starscream at the quad, locating their “brother” sitting scrunched up on a bench by the elaborate fountain. His eyes squint in the bright winter sun. hair tumbled in dark curls around his face, looking almost red in the light.

“Of course I’m ok, did you both run from the dorm?” He asks, frowning with distaste at their appearance. Clothes askew and only half dressed. “Oh gross what did I interrupt?!”

“Sleep!” Skywarp yells, missing the implication and collapsing in the bench next to Starscream. Narrowly missing the other’s pristine form. (and looking disappointed that he missed) “Fuck it’s cold! I can see my breath.”

“It’s called winter.” Starscream pinches Skywarp’s cheek before adjusting the collar of his own wool lapel. Fussy with the hair framing his cheek like it needed to lay _just_ right.

“What’s going on Screamer?” TC reaches down to tug Skywarp’s own coat back together as the last thing they needed was either of them getting a cold. Bad enough they jogged from the dorms through the half foot of snow but he wasn’t dealing with a sick Skywarp at the start of a new semester. No. He refused. They weren’t paying him enough. “You sent like, fifty texts.”

“And called twice.”

“Well answer next time.” Starscream defends, doing that thing with his chin to make himself seem leaner. He was already thinner than they had ever seen him before and knew he wasn’t eating often enough. Too many classes, too many side projects. Not to mention his volunteering at the biology department despite it not being his major. It seemed unlikely he was sleeping by any regular schedule and they couldn’t help but worry. They always worried about Starscream.

Spread thin over his endless interests, but well taught by his mother on how to pretend otherwise. Azure seemed to think it was just as important to teach her son how to appear put together when he was falling apart just as quickly as she was. Always the most elegant figure in any room, if TC hadn’t known the woman his entire life he might have believed it too.

“Can you tell us somewhere inside? It’s super cold, have I said that?” Skywarp frowns, kicking snow with his heel and making sure to get some on Starscream’s shoes. Starscream replies by trying to smother Skywarp with the sleeve of his coat until Thundercracker breaks them apart. Forcing himself to sit between them and hold wrists down. Pretty much his entire life it seemed.

“I...made a mistake...” Starscream begins, awkward enough that it stirs an anxious feeling in the other two, sharing brief glances while Starscream struggles with this statement.

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

TC barely manages to catch Starscream’s leg before he kicked them both, which really was entirely unfair. But Starscream’s annoyance fades quickly, spilling over into a truly disturbed expression. Frowning, but looking sick, paler than he’s ever looked with downcast eyes and a nervous twitch to his tense mouth. Chewing on his lip despite the years Starscream’s mother put into stopping him from the habit.

“Ok! No more jokes, seriously what’s wrong? Are you ok? Are you---”

A great shape emerges from a nearby building just past Starscream’s shoulder. Tall. Taller than anyone had a right to be, and big. While they three were scrawny, this figure was imposing in the distance. Broad shoulders and pale coat making a quick approach with legs that covered as much ground with a casual stride as it would take TC to jog.

All of Thundercracker’s training with the security teams came screaming to life - warning him of the figure. That they were in danger. That he should be pulling Starscream close and getting him to cover...until TC spotted the face of the approaching form. The warm skin and narrow eyes that all but disappeared (bright, kind, and sweet - illegally handsome with radiating gentleness) when the newcomer smiled in recognition.

“Hey Screamer, why is Skyfire is here?”

Starscream almost flings himself off the bench to run away while Skywarp bounces up to look, jaw almost hitting the ground.

They have to grab Starscream’s arms so he can’t actually succeed in running away while Skyfire just draws closer. His white coat, long and swaying in his easy approach across the matching snow. No rush. Like the sun was waiting for him and the world simply couldn’t survive until Skyfire was in position.

“I thought you weren’t supposed to see him again?”

“Yes that’s usually called a _mistake_.” Starscream sounds choked, body tense and they don’t have much time.

“What do you need?” TC urges and hates so very much that his chest ACHES from not allowing himself to join Warp in stunned horror.. “Quickly, we don’t have much time.”

“He came by and asked me out for coffee. I said I had plans with you two. He invited you both too so I said sure!” Starscream spits the words out quickly like it causes him pain, bowing his head in shaken terror while Skywarp manages to get ahold of himself. “I panicked.”

“Skywarp go distract him, we need two minutes.” TC orders and Skywarp is already clambering up and over the bench, flinging himself towards the giant man. For a second TC thinks Warp is going to leap onto Skyfire (and judging by Starscream’s snarl it would be the LAST thing Warp would ever do) but he stops just a foot ahead, almost slipping on the walkway. “We have two minutes. Three if Skywarp tells the hot dog story. Why did you say yes? It was difficult enough to convince your mother to let you stay when you tried to change your major but---”

Thundercracker can feel Starscream’s shoulders through the coat. He’s boney and small in his hands and that just feels wrong. A sense of failure creeps up the back of TC’s thoughts. Azure’s’ voice in his head, entrusting her son to him when Thundercracker was only a child himself. He was supposed to take care of Starscream. He was failing.

“Primus, you really like him that much?” He asks, ducking his head just in case Skywarp fails in his mission, doesn’t want Skyfire to overhear anything. Starscream answers with an absolutely miserable expression, like the entire world was falling down in fractured pieces. “Shit.”

“I know.” Starscream’s knuckles go pale in fists, his jaw flexing while he clenches and fights against the terrible decisions he’s very clearly wanting to make. “I figured, if you two are with me…”

“If she finds out, there’s going to be hell to pay, with or without us.” He watches Starscream jerk. A dry sob forced back into his chest while Skywarp tries to initiate a snowball fight with their guest. Skyfire, impossibly patient, lets Skywarp hit him with one but those ridiculously blue eyes are looking forward. Honey-pale brows rising with inquisition at Starscream’s hunched appearance.

“We aren’t going to tell.” TC assures, able to speak for Skywarp with confidence. He moves to press a cold hand against Starscream’s neck. Holding where the lowered head bows and feels the terrible way his friend, his brother, is shaking. “But you can’t keep doing this.”

“Just a little longer.” Starscream whispers and they both can hear Skywarps’ yelling, announcing their arrival. “We’re just friends I swear, just one more time…”

“Starscream?” They look up and Skyfire is blocking out the sun. His proud form soft at the edges, not a harsh line on his smiling face and really - Thundercracker gets it. If Skywarp would just look at him the way Skyfire is looking at Starscream, like there is absolutely nothing else in this entire world but him, TC would risk anything to be near him too. “You ok?” His voice is soft, even. His eyes are clear and only looking at Starscream - only ever looking at Starscream.

Thundercracker hates that Starscream is just as entranced, because it won’t be forever.

“Not with these two trying to annoy me to death.” Starscream laughs, expertly poised and rising from the bench. “I’m sorry you have to suffer them too - I’ll buy you something to make up for it.”

“Buy us something too - for surviving your dumb ass.” Skywarp complains, needing only a small nod from TC to know how to act. Only smiles, keep Skyfire from knowing how very wrong this is. Keep him in the dark at how very much this is going to hurt one day.

Meanwhile Thundercracker pretends he doesn’t see the way Skyfire’s hand brushes Starscream’s as they walk. How his “brother’s” face scrunches to bite down a smile and they share a private moment he really shouldn’t be invading - but can’t help but look.

Starscream looks happy for the first time in years.

Thundercracker knows it’s not going to be worth it.

 

* * *

 

It doesn’t stop raining throughout the proceedings.

The manor becomes a gray island in a sea of mud and swollen drains, almost lost to the sopping grass and flooded gardens. The groundskeepers stopped coming to work, the maids and caretakers no longer bothered and the lawyers never stayed long.

It felt like a scene from a movie, a terrible one. Something undersaturated and foreign. Usually in such films the they would speak funny languages and sip steaming coffee from delicate cups meant to signify the state of things. Charming and gray while the audience would be left biting their nails. Desperately waiting for the misery to be solved by the return of the missing loved one, or the reveal of the terrible plot. Just one heroic act away to free the sun from the clouded sky and return the world to something liveable.

This was not a movie, though it felt like a prank with every document Starscream was asked to sign. Each headache worse than that last and he forces down too many pills on too empty a stomach. Unless you counted the expensive whiskey, intended for finer glasses, as food.

Skywarp was bound to arrive shortly, unable to get away from work earlier this week as it wasn’t HIS parents who died. Starscream had told him not to rush but he supposes his brother didn’t listen. They never listened, neither of them. Thundercracker was already here, already helping with packing despite being told a hundred times Starscream didn’t care what happened to the interior. Let it rot, he said and worried TC with his declaration of just setting the house on fire. Let it burn, no one would live here anymore so what did it matter?

“You don’t have to go back to Crystal City”

“My home is in Crystal.” Starscream walked across damp floors with bare feet, leaned against bay windows and watched the rain fall across the ruined wasteland of the once-beautiful estate. He didn’t reminiscence of childhood memories, he wasn’t choked by flashing ghosts of his youth chasing tin airplanes across the yard with his loving father. No echoes kept him awake at night as this house was nothing to him. A corpse rotting slowly and refusing to just crumble to time.

Thundercracker was handsome as ever. Tall, kind, thick eyebrows bent out of shape as he looked at Starscream with such pity that it turned his already acid-soaked stomach. If Starscream didn’t love TC so much he’d probably hate him. Skywarp too. He hadn’t seen them in nearly two years but he still couldn’t imagine this without them. The only weakness he supposed.

“When will their bodies be---”

“Already cremated.” Starscream cuts him off and swallows a mouthful of what should be aged brandy - and only tastes water.

“What? But there wasn’t a service or anything?”

“Nope.” He agrees, probably drunk but he couldn’t really tell anymore. Scrubs his shaved scalp with blunt nails and feels where old scars should be. Where they WOULD be if his mother hadn’t paid for the top plastic surgeons to fix him right up. Snip the remnants of his injuries from his very skin. Their money was wasted, he thought. Sure, his skin was perfect but the bones never healed right. The metal plates and burrowed pins screamed whenever it was cold and no doctor could understand why he still limped even years later. He was healed, apparently.

Good for him.

“The only reason to have a funeral is for loved ones to mourn you,” Starscream bites. “And they don’t have those.”

“Starscream…”

“Don’t.” It’s a warning tone, something ancient for his young voice. Worn and tired and broken. Fills his mug with whatever liquor is closest and offers it to his brother. “Aerial RoBotics is already making offers. But I’m turning them down. The board can’t take the shares from me just yet and I need just a little longer.” The sentiment sounded familiar and Starscream is certain he’s said it before. Just one more day, just one more hour. Just give him more time. He always cried that into the universe, but no one was ever listening.

Not Primus, not his parents, not someone he’d never see smile again…

“What are you trying to do?” Thundercracker takes the glass, seems uneasy, but drinks with a quiet wince. Not used to the taste, not used to swallowing down what hurt and pretending it didn’t. Starscream had plenty of practice. It was unfortunate that TC was smart, though. As his expression changed, ignoring the sharp taste of thousands of dollars a swallow as he almost hissed at Starscream. “Not the Null Ray project.” He asked with dread.

And looked dreadful when Starscream smiled.

“It’s the only thing they can’t take, unless they want to implicate themselves in such nefarious work.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Thundercracker almost dropped the glass. He looked ready to throw it actually and maybe that would have been good for both of them. Start a fight, break some bones. Starscream had a great surgeon on speed dial afterall. In a week he wouldn’t look any different from before. “Skywarp’s mom…”

“Died because my father didn’t know what he was doing.”

“And you do?”

“Of course.”

The beginning of the end, a slow fall from a high star. His father couldn’t guarantee more lives wouldn’t be lost so his government contracts shut him down. Starscream remembered the man never being the same afterwards. Struck stunned at being told what he couldn’t do by men who had never known the sky as he did - as their family did. Polaris liked to say their blood was fuel, their lungs filled with clouds. He was the only father who never once discouraged fantastical dreams. Only larger. Only more eccentric - and Starscream’s mother had been the only one capable of keeping his father’s aspirations organized. She was the only one who could have kept that family alive.

Polaris blamed her death on Starscream’s leaving and Starscream never got around to respond to those voicemails before his father was gone too. Both parents lost, one week apart. The official report said heart attack, Starscream said suicide. He knew his father simply couldn’t exist in a world without his mother and probably chose to give up. That sort of obsessive attachment to someone was dangerous, dependency just a lethal as a drug.

He would know, he was his father’s son afterall.

“Have you ever heard of the Decepticon Corporation?” Starscream asks and Thundercracker makes a face. “Yes. A stupid name. But not a stupid set up. They’ll want what I can make them.”

“You’re selling Seeker Air Command?”

“Should I drown with it?” He barks and tries to self-soothe. That’s what his therapist said after the accident. Learn to control his emotions, learn how to keep the screaming to a minimum. Of course Starscream’s jaw was wired shut for weeks after the crash so he sort of had to learn to scream without screaming. “I need time, to rebuild a bit what’s left into something halfway appealing. Drip blood in the water and see if I can catch a shark. Seeker Command is nothing for a company like that, but he’ll want the weapons I can build.”

Some dads taught their sons to build boats, change tires or how to fish. Starscream’s father taught him to build stealth bombers and weapons of electronic warfare.

Mommy dearest taught him to smile and sign the devil’s waivers on insurance policies and court settlements. All without flinching.

“He?”

“Megatron.” Now would be the perfect time for lightning to strike. For thunder to quiver the glass around them and rattle the bare bones of the abandoned manor and rotting riches.. But the sky remains gray and pale and only pours across the estate like it was trying to wash them all away.

“I’m worried about you.” Of course he is. Thundercracker is always worried, it was all he had. He was beautiful and intelligent and meant for so much more - but Starscream was still somehow tricked Thundercracker into believing he was worth his thoughts. What do you do with someone like that? “Ever since Skyfire--”

That time lightning strikes, or perhaps it just feels like it. Like thunder is crawling through an exposed nerve and Starscream can barely stay upright.

“Death isn’t reversible, I can’t wait around like I’m going to see him again.”

“He’s not-”

“Will you do this with me?” He can tell he startles Thundercracker, big blinking eyes unprepared for everything happening in this broken house. Just two brothers surrounded by ghosts of themselves, of poisoned memories and broken hearts. “Skywarp and you, I have plans, Thundercracker. I can fix this - I can make this work but not alone.”

“Starscream.”

“I need you both.” If Thundercracker agrees, Skywarp will agree. If Skywarp agrees, Thundercracker will agree. He only needs one brother to say yes. “Please.”

Starscream remembers the horrendous whine of a choking engine. A wheel spinning overhead in a world cast red just like the snow melting beneath his body. He remembers finding his phone somewhere in the carnage and the way blood seeped into the broken glass when he called the only person he could think of.

The only person he trusted besides the body he couldn’t reach in what remained of the car.

“I’m here.” Thundercracker nodded, same tranquil voice as then when he answered the frantic call. Assuring Starscream through managed tears: _”I’m here, Star, it’s ok I’m here._ over the phone again and again trying to keep him conscious before help could reach them. “Whatever you need.”

“Thank you.” Starscream smiles and strangely enough, it almost feels real.

If he practices enough, maybe one day he won't know the difference.

* * *

 

“Ok, but when are we going to address the elephant in the room about how ridiculously hot our new boss is?”

Thundercracker and Starscream both slap Skywarp in the back before retreating to their work. Hoping the floor supervisors didn’t notice the outburst and, Primus help them, that Megatron himself hadn’t heard.

The man in question was too close for their comfort, touring the new sub-basement laboratories where Starscream was partnered on multiple projects. His “brothers” joining him as assistants with their new glossy badges and nondisclosure agreements freshly signed.

Whatever Starscream had done in his one and only meeting with the Decepticon leader, it had given them...quite a bit in return. Homes offered, cars if they wanted, company credit cards and a budget that made the senior engineers blush. It was more than just new jobs in exchange for scrapping what they could from the collapsing Seeker production. It was a new life handed over on a polished platter and no questions asked.

Literally.

Skywarp and Thundercracker hadn’t even interviewed for their positions. Just signed forms from a visiting lawyer and agreed to be moved in a day. From Vos to Iacon in a single day - Skywarp was still adjusting.

“Well he is.” Skywarp muttered, returning to mapping for Starscream’s upcoming presentation - a superior jet engine. Something Starscream could improve in his sleep. He wanted to start simple, something they could invest in immediately and offer buyers with certainty rather than the higher reaching goals they assumed Starscream had used to lure Megatron. It was something they could do, and they could do well, and it almost felt like there was nothing nefarious about the company at all.

Almost.

“Keep your eyes off him.” Starscream holds his tablet out like a threat. “That’s absolutely disgusting, not to mention a one-way ticket to ruining us.”

“I wasn’t going to try anything.” Skywarp complains, flicking a paperclip in Starscream’s direction and Thundercracker wondered if they were really going to devolve into a slap fight with their BOSS less than fifty feet away.

Megatron. Huh.

Megatron was, in a word, terrifying. Currently he stalked the labs various clear-walled sectors lead by the Division head. Followed by his equally terrifying assistant lingering in his shadow, making notes with sharp eyes and a still mouth that didn’t even part to breathe.

He looked, powerful. More like someone who conquered ancient territories behind a chariot rather than sitting at a desk and signing documents all day. With skin warmed then polished by the sun, large hands that felt like iron when they first met - a single handshake almost knocking TC over. Skywarp had swooned on their first day and that had been a very different mess to how Starscream acted around their employer.

Starscream had a habit of acting big around anyone larger or more powerful than himself. And sadly that inferiority complex hadn’t paused for the one responsible for their livelihood. They apparently fought constantly, which was strange to hear and never see. Meeting up for dinner just to listen to Starscream’s long-winded complaints about the “stupid brute playing emperor”. He didn’t seem to like Megatron much...but even a fool could tell Starscream admired him.

Thundercracker had feared at first Starscream would do something stupid. Megatron wasn’t ugly by any means. Rough like armor displayed in a museum. Used and battle scarred but intricate and inspiring. The manner Megatron carried wherever he stepped was almost suffocating and honestly Thundercracker felt honored to BE intimidated by the man. But Starscream had tricks, and Starscream had plans and the last thing they needed was for all their hard work to be flushed down the drain was because Starscream thought he was smarter than Megatron.

When oh so clearly, he was not.

It was a relief beyond relief that Starscream seemed to understand this, even going as far as to discourage Skywarp’s joking behavior. At least TC hoped he was joking...Primus he hoped he was joking...because if Skywarp was planning on being a kept boy by their boss Thundercracker needed to return a ring he bought years ago - long before their first kiss.

“Besides,” Skywarp continued, and oh how they wished he wouldn’t as Megatron was closer now than before. “He only makes eyes at Screamer.”

There’s a crash and it echoes, the nearest groups pausing to seek the cause only to find Starscream. Wide-eyed and red faced, the tablet at his feet face down and screen shattered judging by the tiny bits of glass surrounding their station. Having hit the workbench corner on the way down and making it very difficult for Starscream to disappear.

“I’m going to kill you.” Starscream whispers, scowling and choked up - terrible at receiving attention when unprepared. Going tense when Skywarp had to stop himself from laughing at the look on Starscream’s face. “And after I kill you I’m going to---”

“Is there a problem?”

“AH!” Skywarp falls out of his seat when Megatron speaks, knocking blueprints and pens down with him in the flurry of his scare. Leg kicking out and tripping Starscream, sending their third tripping into the workbench and - because Primus was either dead or cruel - right into their employer’s chest.

He hits. Hard. Face first into the tie clip and there’s a jump of pain and a noise. Starscream pulling back as the metal edge was sharp enough to skim the flesh of his nose. Red swelling up on dark skin and leaving Thundercracker scrambling to find a towel or anything useful while Skywarp fell to knees and started apologizing.

“Watch where you’re going!” Starscream bears teeth up at their employer, careless and purposefully loud so those snickering nearby knew first hand how unafraid of Megatron he could pretend to be.

“Perhaps if you weren’t so busy gossiping you would have seen my approach.” Megatron answers, voice deep like the echo of an endless cavern. Dark and forever - likely your doom. “Hold still.” Without asking Megatron move faster than one might expect, batting Starscream’s hands away from his wounded face and laying his own pocket square over the small wound - almost encompassing Starscream’s face with his hand alone.

One. Two. Three.

Starscream blinks, owlish and comical until the absurdity of the situation catches up to his melted brain. He yanks back and away from Megatron, trailed by a thin hiss and pointed glare.

“Get off of me! I don’t know where this has been!” He cries, outraged and embarrassed, but doesn’t lower the handkerchief of violet and silver from his face. “Where’s HR when I need them?!”

“Right here.” Megatron motions over his shoulder to Soundwave (who gives a courteous wave) before sweeping low and plucking the tablet from the floor. Shaking a few glass shards from its surface and giving it an almost impressed look. “I thought I hired you to create, not destroy?”

“And I thought I agreed to work for a man of innovation - not a lumbering behemoth who always gets in my way!”

“Starscream,” Tundercracker tried, giving Megatron a very polite smile (that was close to begging as one could get). “Maybe calm down?”

“Ugh, I don’t have time for this!” He jabs a finger into Megatron’s chest, looking up at him with a terrible scowl. “If this scars you best have your lawyers ready! I’ve never had plastic surgery and I don’t intend to!” Lies. And though Starscream scarcely reaches Megatron’s collar he manages to push their goliath of a boss aside, storming past Soundwave who look as exhausted as TC feels.

Considering their “Brother” just abandoned them with their likely upset employer. Gee. Thanks Screamer.

Skywarp kicks Thundercracker’s heel, catches his attention, and wordlessly motions up before Starscream can get too far. Their furious third’s steps as violent and loud as a hurricane, cursing Megatron and all he’s worth in a shameful display as he goes.

Megatron was left watching, chin high and dark eyes trained on the retreating form.

And he was just, almost, slightly smiling.

* * *

 

Skywarp wakes to the sound of panic.

Then goes back to sleep.

Then wakes right back up as Thundercracker shakes him violently, almost pushing him off the bed all while yelling his name.

“Skywarp wake the fuck up!”

“Why do you HATE me?!” Yells, sitting up in their bed and too groggy to try and kill his fiance because he was just. So. So tired. So much so that Skywarp was still wearing his work clothes from the day before and felt sweaty and pained in all the worst ways. Not even sure what happened - they’d driven home from a long day at the test field and crashed in bed. What time had that been? Five pm?

He looked a the clock, it read six am. Ugh gross.

“Look outside!” TC was pacing in their bedroom, rumpled clothes from yesterday still on and his cellphone crammed against his ear...but it was his face that made Skywarp afraid. He looked scared.

“What happened?!” Skywarp does as told, heart beating faster than he was prepared for, dizzy when he scrambles over the bed to reach the window and push past the heavy curtains. Still dark for early winter that it took a moment to clear his vision, trying not to recall the last time Thundercracker got a call and looked sick from what he heard on the other line.

The world was quiet, quiet enough. A few streets visible from their apartment dotted in motion as cars and city transport began their day. A few commuting bodies lingering on the sidewalk, leaving footprints and tire tracks in the snow which had coated their city overnight.

“What am I supposed to be---” Stomach drops and the chill from the glass suddenly felt violent as needles pressing too close to this skin. “Oh fuck,” Is all he can get out before moving back across the room to his phone tossed careless over the room. Half dead battery and multiple missed calls and texts, each more vicious and furious than the last over the course of two hours yesterday evening.

“He won’t answer.” TC’s voice is choked as he pulls the phone down, stabbing at the screen with a tremor in his hand. “Can you try? I’m going to see if the office can check the labs, maybe he just slept there?”

“Okokok.” Skywarp dials the familiar number with speed. It rings. No answer. He tries again. It rings. No answer. “He could have gotten a cab?” He asks, hopeful but TC’s face looks almost worse for the suggestion. “He wouldn’t drive though, right? He can’t I mean, we knew it was supposed to snow this weekend but he wouldn’t get behind the wheel with his issues. Right?!”

He knows better, he has to know better. The last time he drove in weather like this…

“Keep trying.” TC urges, passing by to squeeze Skywarp’s elbow with what little comfort he can provide, voice picking up as he finally got through to the office. “Hi, this is Thundercracker, sector leader of--”

Skywarp calls Starscream’s phone again wishing his STUPID brother hadn’t moved across town or else he could just walk to check on him. They used to live one floor away, just one staircase and a short walk. Skywarp recalled sneaking into Starscream’s room at the manor, the bleak halls lined with portraits of strangers who looked horrific in the night. The way Starscream would complain about Skywarp crawling into bed with him, but would leave the tableside lamp on regardless.

How did they sleep through his calls? How could they?

He dials. It rings. No answer. He dials. It rings. No answer. He dials. It rings…

“WHAT?!” Starscream’s voice so shrill in the morning has never sounded so good. Skywarp lets out a loud cry to alert TC, almost falling back to the bed when knees go weak in relief.

“I”m sorry! We fell asleep and didn’t know you were calling and didn’t know it was going to snow and we can come get you where are you are you ok what happened?!” He doesn’t breathe once, not even as Thundercracker crowds close, cheeks flush together as Skywarp hits the speaker button just in time for Starscream’s dismissive sigh.

“You idiots, you’re calling for that?! I’m fine!” There’s a pause, Starscream’s hand can be heard brushing the receiver.

“Star! Where are you!?”

“I’m home!” Voice goes high, then drops, almost to a whisper when he continues. “I’m home, It’s fine, calm down.”

“You didn’t drive did you?” Skywarp is pressed against TC’s side, flashbacks of hospital beds and rehab centers. The following years when Starscream would lock himself away during certain months - having to drive to another city to pick him up as snow fell quiet from the sky…

“No I didn’t. I got a ride.”

“From who?” TC gapes, somehow more shocked than hearing Starscream just slept at the office.

“Primus you’re nosy! Don’t worry about it I---”

“Starscream please!” Skywarp implores. “Just tell us!”

“Fine! Sheesh, Megatron drove me home alright?”

TC pulled away from the phone, staring at it like he was certain to have misheard.

“Come again?”

“Megatron drove me home. He’s got a big truck with big wheels, zero taste and overcompensation. It was fine. I’m fine. Thank you for waking me up at, for the love of, do you realize what time it is?!”

“You let Megatron drive you home?” Skywarp feels himself slouch back into the mattress, sharing puzzled looks with TC. “Like. Our bossBoss?”

“So?”

“So?? You don’t even let Dirge drive you home in midsummer - and you’ve known Dirge since we were twenty!”

“Well maybe I’m not an idiot and I don’t trust Dirge!”

“So you trust Megatron?!” Skywarp blurts out, unthinking which was his only setting. He was the heart of the group really. TC was the brains and Starscream was the ass they kept having to pull out of the fire. But as the heart of the group he was the one to call them out on the stupid things they said. And what Starscream just implied…

There’s a voice on Starscream’s end. It’s low and it’s dark and it sends both of them tense and terrified and imagining a gun metal suit and a tie the color of splashed blood. The voice calls out Starscream’s name and their “brother” answers, hand over the phone to muffle his response all while leaving TC and Warp forgetting how to breathe.

It’s six in the morning and Megatron was in Starscream’s home.

“I’m hanging up now, I’ll see you two tomorrow.” Starscream answers quickly, lacking his usually painted disinterest or annoyance. Now he just sounds rushed.

“See us tomorrow because it snowed? Or because---” Skywarp can’t finish the thought before the line cuts. The dial tone eventually fills the silence between TC and himself, slouched on the bed’s edge and sharing a look of absolute confusion.

Conflict.

Concern.

“No.” TC starts, sounding so sure it’s almost like he believes it. “No way, Megatron wouldn’t…”

“Starscream would.” Skywarp adds.

“Starscream hates him!” It’s a weak defense, they both know it. But they might have been able to convince themselves of anything else had it not been for the chime of their phones in unison not moments later. Emails received from work. Division leads and managers being informed that Megatron would be out of the office today and to contact his secretaries to reschedule any pressing appointments.

“There’s just. No way.” Thundercracker repeats, and just past his furrowed expression Skywarp watches the snow outside begin to fall once more.


End file.
